Coco LOVES storms! Rambo HATES storms!

Coco is a four-year-old chocolate lab/chow mix. We rescued her from a shelter in Bradenton, Florida when she was a puppy. As you can see from this photo, she was VERY happy to be going to her forever home!

Rambo is an eight-year-old orange Maine coon cat who was found as a stray by our son-in-law’s friend, Cole, in Georgia. He ended up living in Maine with Cole and our son, Max, fell in love with him. The bond was so strong that Cole let Max adopt Rambo and they’ve been best friends ever since.

On the day we moved onto the boat, Coco looked the happiest we’d ever seen her! She ran around on the deck, fearless in her romping. And, so far, she hasn’t fallen in (knock on wood!). She loves sitting out on the deck in the sun, whether it’s beastly hot or freezing cold. She’s truly a boat dog, through and through.

Rambo prefers to stay inside during the day, and stalk the docks at night. When we got our first big blow last year, we heard Rambo screeching down below. We found him crouched down on his belly in the hallway, which is the lowest point in the boat. He was crying and shaking. And, that began a very uncomfortable period of time for Rambo. Each afternoon, like clockwork, the skies would open and the thunder would roar. Rambo would cower, and whine, and cry and we had to take him into the captain’s quarters and comfort him. He was truly a scaredy cat!

But, when the sun set, he would escape through the companionway, jump off the boat, and dart down the docks toward the park. We would leave the companionway open and he’d come home around 4 a.m. each morning, and jump up on our bed. He’d then meow and bite my head until I’d pet him for awhile. That was his reward for coming back home.

We later learned what mischief Rambo was getting into (ahem…) but that’s a whole ‘nuther chapter in this story.

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.